rapturerebornmmorpgfandomcom-20200216-history
Part 145
Sitemap '--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ' Lots More Fabulous Items/Ideas For a BioShock Rapture MMORPG '--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ' Part 145 --- --- --- --- --- --- So Much Jive : Historical accuracy in Infinite BS is similar to using Muppets or Cute Ponies to do the Holocaust, Rape of Nanking, or the Wounded Knee Massacre. If you want to demonstrate the flaws in American society's past, then why not fake it up and make it a grotesque caricature to 'improve' its delivery to the gamerboi audience (who only have a vague understanding of ANY of it due to the pathetic quality public schools these days). Sorry, NO. Attempting Social commentary via 'Pogo' (google it) being turned into a Snuff Film is asinine. A Great Idea --- > Actually portray the truth ??? True cleverness does NOT produce rubbish. --- --- --- Humor Sofia Lamb Reading Her Poetry : Unspeakable punishment that made her victims tear their own heads off or force iron nails into their own ears. Not Original ?? If you wanted 'original', then why are you looking at a Website about "BioShock" ? Lamb was likely incensed when she learned her 'poetry book' (Metamorphosis II), which had been handed out amongst her followers, was most frequently employed as a convenient source of toilet paper. A Lamb-ism : "'Where the Sun Don't Shine', that's where you will find the fine words of Sofia Lamb most comforting." --- --- --- Humor Quantum Strangeness : Wasn’t it Einstein who said : "The very definition of insanity was filling a balloon with kittens and then chopping off your own legs" ? No ? Are you sure you are in the right multiverse here, pilgrim ? --- --- --- Little Sisters - WHY Aren't They Affected By "ADAM Sickness" ? ' : I find it likely that Little Sisters might resist ADAM sickness in some way (a natural corrective/regenerative mechanism which the Sea Slugs have ?), which wouldn't work in a normal (unslugged) human being. So, Why not ( after more research and development -- Ryan's "Better Product"ref ) have similar stabilization methods being built into ADAM products by the manufacturers (ie- preventing at least those disconcerting cosmetic affects). Later Civil War crude 'emergency versions' or "bootlegged' products, lacking many of those more complex elements, contributed to the populations faster degeneration from ADAM sickness ... Fontaine may not have cared for costly additives that cut into his profits. The mystery of why ADAM Sickness took so long to manifest itself - once sufficient for a Public Scare is not explained. Other producers have to rely on their Sea Slugs (most with no child-boost) for their ADAM source, so even if they offered 'enhanced' safety in their products, Fontaine's tainted products would still predominate. Possibly, the severe ADAM use/overuse was uncommon UNTIL people tried to use the stronger "weaponized" ADAM products to defend themselves from the terrorism Atlas was perpetrating (and 'Combat' Plasmids required more severe body modifications than many commercial products - adding greatly to the 'Disease' effect). --- --- --- Quantumz On The Brain "Flying Faux Fantasy™" : A perfectly fine "alliteration" (( '' The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words. '' )) It might as well have been ''Farging Fantasy Floatyness, and based on "Kirlian Photography" technology from that C.E.R.N. thingee. (THAT sounds like something good and plausible to your average Player, don't it ?) Makes about as much sense as all the Quantumz BS they made up. (Heck, they even had that TV show Quantum Leap !!!) --- --- --- '''Fiction in Fiction : "Wonder of the Worlds", an adventure novel where Nikola Tesla, Mark Twain and (The Great) Houdini pursue Martian agents who have stolen a powerful crystal from Tesla at the Columbia Exposition. Lets have these gentlemen set out to destroy Comstock after a spirit (Houdini's mother's) tells him what an evil destructive man he is, and how many people he will enslave and murder. Twain's quaint humor can be quite cutting, and Houdini is full of surprises, and Tesla uses his great technical knowledge, with the others, to fix "Comstocks Little Red Wagon". Stories within stories was what BioShock was all about, NO ? (( '' Even better if its neat splashy interactive fiction (I smell another Player Created Asset and Contes !!!) . '' )) If we are going to link Infinite BS to BioShock Rapture, then at least lets do it in a plausible (sci-fi) way, no? - Did Comstock send Columbia to destroy Paris to dissuade the distracted/obsessed Elizabeth from still wanting to go there ?? Oh look, the Eiffel Tower collapsing !!! (Been there, done that in CoD...) --- --- --- "Double-Whammie One-Two Punch" (Plasmid + Weapon) - Splicers doing this to you ... (Ouch) ''' : Ryan trained his Security to handle Splicers with more powerful weapons and tactics. He might be unlikely to 'Splice Them' (his own men) as much as McDonagh seems to imply (Ryan seriously does NOT need yet MORE crazy/unreliable people, particularly for his Security men). In the MMORPG, the Plasmids are growing less effective (old stuff or badly made recent stuff), so you won't be fighting a 50% (half-of-time) lose scenario against challenging opponents, which would be more realistic. The Splicers might also miss sometimes (or alot), and various countermeasures available to YOU might lessen their impact. The Solo games were simplified in the Plasmid mechanics, so things like terrain obstacles could have alot more impact. The Plasmid attack most frequently served to just immobilize your target (to stay still and to not be ducking/attacking you) while you blasted them with your weapon. That's a logical pairing, because IF you could do it chiefly by Plasmid attack, THEN you wouldn't need the weapon use much in the game at all (just spam the target with Plasmid), and hence the weapon game element would largely dwindle to irrelevancy. --- --- --- ADAM-Disease Affectation of The Player : Think if they (the game makers) had thought of some embedded psychological drama/underlying demonstration like a subtle but building warped vision/delusion of the Rapture the player SEES (instead of it being plain/real), this being caused by you (Jack) using more and more ADAM. Upto that point fairly early, being ADAM-free, you would initially get a more real experience (plain crash, an excuse of a mild concussion). Perhaps bypass that with what Jack really was (as you were NOT informed) - an artificially created mind/body (pre-warped in its very makeup) - especially with it likely that ADAM was used alot to create you. IF THEY HAD THOUGHT OF THAT ASPECT, THEN they WOULD have spelled it out for the Players in the end (or claim it later) to demonstrate how clever they were. Since they didn't, they really didn't think of it. Warped reality takes lots of effort and 'effects' to imply it (like the MMORPG could do with many role playing perspectives, and lots of Player Creator imagination). Hinting, Subtleties, etc... Since the original story had ADAM use NOT be quite so obvious in its Negative Affects (to hide its pervasive takeover of significant portion of the population), here when Jack takes ADAM it is in a later more powerful form (you get a Plasmid in BS1 almost immediately), and possibly cruder (though its from Ryans Machine, but others you just 'find'). That's a possible justification of Jack's immediate zap-crackle-pop side-effects -- '''cuz Jack is a messed up 4 year, and maybe also reacting to the Pheromone additive (which Ryan has laced the Gatherer's Garden ADAM machines with) ... - An interesting idea to justify all those ADAM goodies (Plasmids/Tonics) you just find lying about - they are left there by Atlas to BOOST the conditioning affects (some additive he doesn't mention - just for Jack as he is guided by the nose (like a steer) through 'the path' by Atlas). Its possible you were 'on ice', waiting for your being sent to Rapture, and once activated YOU start to deteriorate, and those 'boosts' are needed (Suchong prepared it all ahead of time). That wouldn't bode well for a "purist" Player who tried to play all the way through MINUS all the Plasmids/Tonics (those that weren't forced on you - required to advance -- Electro-Bolt/Incinerate). --- --- --- Those Horrendous Columbian Zeppelins ': pix You don't need a gasbag anymore (''quantum floaties take care of that function, shouldn't they ??). So why is this gasbag shape STILL THERE on those really awful looking things ?? If it was for interior (occupied) spaces, then why no windows and why retain that irrelular shape? Streamlined ? Really ? When those quite oddly placed huge Biplane Wings destroy any/all advantage of the REST of the airship's shaping (( '' It so easy for 'artists' to lazily just glomb-together existing old-picture things to come up with something "new" for the game setting, but really just results in a rather poor fuster-cluck of a design. '' )) Did the Prophet demand that everyone do worship by bouncing on holy trampolines five times a day, and THAT interior volume was REQUIRED to allow that Trampoline use ? (It might also explain the ridiculous high ceilings EVERYWHERE in Columbia ...) (( '' There's Plenty of real stuff on the Internetz from the 1920s/30s to be intelligently 'retro-futurized', instead of getting 'stuck' on this lame crap 'zeppelin' idea they unimaginatively perverted into this fantasy stupidity. '' )) '*Fanboi Head Explosion* ' Just go and look at the pictures of real stuff to see what I'm talking about. --- --- --- 'Automobiles in Raptures Suburbs ' : A later development in the second phase of Rapture Construction - Future plans had continuing expansion of 'Suburbs' to handle Rapture's population increase. The Tunnels built requiring small profile for 'cars' (not exactly the HUGE 50s type cars). Convertibles, because the roadway tunnels are frequently drippy. (Hmm, simulated rain in places ...) Bicycles (being most common) have the 'right of way'. Of course there would be Trucks to transport/distribute goods (for areas not immediately near a Tram station). The 'suburbs' would grow to have many thousands of people living in them eventually (and they are lower density than the rest of Rapture). Trolleys would still be used (are also needed for Freight transport) - really they are just tracks running in main intercluster city-connecting tunnels/viaducts. (They have a much larger size-profile than 'Cars') - Electric cars (batteries) have limited range (but distances in Rapture aren't that far). Not overly exciting but maybe better for service vehicles. Fuel type autos have noxious exhaust (air is closed in and limited, the fume stick around). Some fuels are better than others for pollution, but expenses are the issue. Compressed gas (like liquid/compressed Nitrogen - totally non-polluting) used with airmotors, quite possible but not well developed. Sorry, no peddle cars. --- --- --- Game Mechanics '''Playing 1 Hour a Day : A great many Players don't have alot of daily playtime in their busy lives. SO DONT WASTE THE PLAYER'S TIME !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A Player should NOT take more than 5 minutes to review their various statuses and to minorly adjust their ongoing game Projects (largely carried out by their NPC 'Team' minions). SO minimize the point and click hell/abuse that most MMORPGs have (being 'filler' player-grind grunt work -- for want of more exciting/better content). There should be Succinct reports of progress, smart sifting of significant milestones and/or opportunities, highlighted decision points, and shortcuts for reenabling similar actions. Leave the Players time to wander the streets of New Rapture and see what is going on (and is interesting) or continue an expedition out into The Ruins. AGAIN -- *DONT WAST THE PLAYERS TIME !!!!* --- --- --- Game Activities Rapture Reborn - Excavating Ruins In the City for Goodies : At a 'dig site' (a wrecked location). You usually have to do some stabilization first, gain access, remove debris, etc... Pick through some old shit (you never know what you might find). No doubt this could be turned into a rather fun Mini-Game (try to pull stuff out without having it be buried in a whole landslide pile of crap - do you dig more detritus out of the way first or 'go for it' ?). Discover a story from Rapture's Past. The Player gets to decide if they want to learn the story (do research to get more info) or just scrounge for useful goodies. Clues to something obscured can lead to more/better loot. Multi-dimensional "mission's" let players get out of it what they want Non-interference Server Bubble for the location, so after YOU do all the work someone later can't just saunter-in and grab the goodies (collaborative work between multiple Players would have to have some mechanism for fairly divvying up the loot - separate piles or somesuch). Longer work can product a 'location' which can be reworked into a useful establishment. Guess what YOU get to do with your 'Residence' that you can get assigned from the City Lottery (for these 'ruins' conveniently located close to City Hall/New Rapture ...) Yes you get to dig it out first ... --- --- --- Type of Business - Job Placement Service : A nice small business in Rapture, with a normal turn-over of jobs, likely Ryan would 'contract out' for this function. People WOULD change jobs in Rapture (they did it in the real world, ALOT). Young people grow up and start work (possible vocational training as part of internships ...). Note - Artist, Scientist, Industrialist are generally NOT job titles. There's not a huge population in Rapture (hence 'small' business ...) Want Ads (bulletin boards, newspapers) MMORPG probably would have a 'request Fabrication work' and 'Team' NPC position hiring interaction functionality. - Job Applications/Interviews : Funny if YOU (as the Hire-er) have to 'vet' the NPC/Player applicant, and turn away alot of unqualified lame-o's that you get - just like in the real world. SO its yet Another Created Asset - The Job Applicant/Application, with typical context relevant dialogue, etc ...) With an Interview interface which has to be pretty much 'pre-canned' with Dialog Trees, with appropriate scripted logic to match the applicant spectrum for various job descriptions. Various 'jobs' available to the Player (as Hire-ee) could have similar questions and answers, and can indicate whether the player is qualified (and what skills they may want to acquire to be hired for that job in the future). It would have alot of Auto-answering based on the the Player Avatar's skills and ability attributes (so they couldn't cheat at least for that part of it). --- --- --- Too Large, Too Expensive : As I've mentioned many times the Gianourmity of the Game's portrayal of Columbia's layout, and the general lack of understanding of what real things cost -- in Columbia's case it being a floating microcosm WITHOUT any apparent external economic support, which even a small town needs. So with that said - EVEN BEFORE THAT SITUATION - WHERE did the money come from in the first place to build Columbia ??? That whole monstrosity was NOT paid for by the US Government (or rather moreso by the US Taxpayers). Even if the some initial SMALL exhibition Columbia had some 'matching funds' put towards it, that doesn't explain how everything seen by the Game's 1912 time got built (WE CAN ASSUME that the US Gov '''WASN'T going to pay for Finks Huge mundane Industrial plants, OR for ready-made Slums, OR for a bunch of Enormous Cultish Religious Statuary.) WHERE DID THE MONEY COME FROM TO BUILD big Columbia? Remember (read your history) that the US was heading into a Economic Depression even as the 1893 Exposition was being built. And NO, a flying amusement park is not quite as prestigious as they pretend (or likely to waste millions of 1893 dollars on needlessly). WHAT MONUMENTAL SWINDLE COULD POSSIBLY PAY FOR ALL THIS ? (It is unlikely Columbia could have massive foreign trade to pay for it all - without it being far too intertwined-with/connected-to those hellbound sinners below.) More and more delusional it grows. --- --- --- '''MMORPG Mini-game #34 Fishing : Besides the difficulty of the water PRESSURE outside being able to crush you instantly, and on exposure to that water, which is near the freezing temperature (and there your survival is usually counted in minutes ...) * Indoor fishing in one of the catfish farms ?? Not all that challenging. (the 'easy' part of the ramp) * Fishing in one of the AE airlocks (some hardy fish/things might survive the decompression of the opening/closing/pumping airlock doors). The light would attract the fish and other sealife and various growths in those mechanisms. * Scraping barnacles is sorta fishing. Bait is always needed, so this still would be done for more advanced fishing activities (or for supplying others engaged in that). * Unfortunately there is no Fishing Plasmid/Tonic to assist you. I guess you will simply have to use cleverness and skill. * Guiding a kludged-together 'fishing' sub to try to catch some sustenance is the high end activity that will take alot of resources. ('Drones' using the smarts/remote-control from Flybots probably is possible for some kinds of 'fishing'.) Lots of Fish Assets and Animated movements and scripted behaviors (they had those Aquarium Screen Saver programs 20 years ago ...) --- --- --- All That Ridiculously *HUGE* Stuff For Columbia in Infinite BS ': The real 1893 Exposition drew nearly 26 million visitors. How many thousand of inhabitants could Columbia possibly have in it ?? (it is 'spread out', but the sections really aren't that large). Here's a picture of a real train station for a town of 20000 from that period pix For a game, 'Big' can be used to hide lack of detail (and if you aren't near it, then you need virtually little/no effort-requiring detail work to be done). Consider Real World Practicalities : * Something built *HUGE* costs a *HUGE* amount of money. * It being *HUGE*, it takes a *HUGE* amount of maintenance (a constant liability). * It being needlessly *HUGE* doesn't generate more income. * Being *HUGE* can waste alot of space/resources needed for more important things. * Consider that *HUGE* budget Infinite BS had, it still didn't make a *HUGE* amount of profits (when adding in all the marketing expenses (kinda like *HUGE* signs) the game may not have even 'broken even'). * Columbia being *HUGE* and spread out, simply made it hard to get anywhere (with pathetic transport to boot). **HUGE* things all run/glombed together onto each other loses alot of potential aesthetics (so much of Columbia just looks like a half-assed mess). **HUGE* gets old after a while. * "Ram it in the Players face" *HUGE* steals the Players ability to DISCOVER it for themselves. **HUGE* can be done with "a wave of the hand", no matter how implausible it all is. --- --- --- Infinite BS Developers Lazy Game Element Cloning : Simply copying the same things from previous games, except less a matchup or compatibility to the game's setting (STUPIDER by having 'tech' done wrong/out-of-era/illogically). * Magic potions (it is minus Bioshock:Rapture's Genetic Enhancement reasoning/justification). SORRY, Quantumz don't give you magic powers -- when we didn't even see Flying Belts which WOULD have been something at least explainable by the Floatyshit™ thing. * Magic Clothing (Gearz) - in place of technicological mechanisms in Rapture's technical world (too many inappropriate 'Fantasy' type ability buffs). * Magic Economy (Magic Cornucopia Trashcans, and/or Boxcars from Never-Neverland?? Microcosm Economy) * OOPS ADD Magic gate portals to new dimensions to get you away from the place you just F*cked Up (or simply to move the plot forward). Really no different gamewise from just entering another Map 'Level' via 'transportation'. * Complex Vending machines doing amazing things(act as pawn broker feature...), but which never seem to be used for selling things the inhabitants want/need (and at costs they could afford). * Truely ignoramus created Audio Diary technology for 'backstory. Duke/Dimwit and Kinetoscope propaganda devices which Herr Goebbels "shat bigger'in" (You know they DID have Nickelodeons by that time of the game setting, and definitely available to be 'future stolen' .) * Lazy Weapon tech - 'bought' upgrades at 'machines', but minus those Alternate Ammo types that made it a bit more interesting. Interchangeable weapons, but with negligible differences between them. When you only now have 2 available at once to select from (plus that chainsaw hand thing). Rapid-fire guns when they weren't common for decades yet (gots to have lots of bang-bang so that the Player thinks they are doing something while wearing down the bullet-sponge opponents). * Rechargeable (magic) Shield (needed because the Player is now more a bullet sponge, and often trapped in an arena for much of the serious firefights). * Magic Anything-you-need, via Quantumz, when normal/known (likely) technology doesn't exist for it (or when it might be only plausible in a whole world 80 years later). Complex unlikely things easily present with "a wave of a hand" ... * "Heavy Hitters' which were just plain bizarre (Drank too deep of the Fountain of Weirdness and Fantasy). * Big oversized machinery props with their main attribute mostly of being ''impressive looking. * Security Devices - pix of columbia turret pix of concept infinite BS turrent mosquito Sorry no electronics exist in 1912, and this automation doesn't quite work with 'clockworks' (see below). Its apparently done via Magic - but it is the same automation element as copied from Rapture. Sorry, mechanical wonders (claimed gimmicks likely only to be found faked in amusement arcades or concepts in futuristic fiction mags) don't/cannot automatically detect/decide/track targets, and fire bursts of machine gun fire at them (they really cannot do that EVEN today without killing ALOT of your own people). Imagine Columbia being run by LAWYERS, brought to power by all the lawsuits for accidental/negligent deaths of Citizens, done by these impossibly inept devices everywhere in Columbia. Rapture was a city of geniuses, Columbia of moronic cultists (and that's ignoring the 50 years difference in ambient technological advancements as well, which you at least get to have in BS1). Keep these murderous moronic machines and Columbia would soon be a city of only ghosts. --- --- --- '''Elaboration on Attempting Clockwork Complex Functionality : So is Quantumz supposed to do Artificial Intelligence now (or even just merely to moronically identify/classify any moving targets, and aim/track/shoot at them in an intended DEATH ZONE - where anything there is assumed a target) ? Sensors, remote control ... those didn't exist yet --- OOPY DOOPY, THE MACHINES TALKED BY TELEGRAPH DERRRRRRRRRPP!!!! Discerning friend/foe has always been a complication (one well past anything even FANTASY Columbia could have solved). Not exactly something for gears and cogs (and belts and bellcranks) to perform. If some 'stolen' electronics are involed then they should have been in evidence MUCH MORE for all kinds of other things ( Assuming you discount how Fink can only be "a Technological Caveman", who could NEVER understand/develop anything of the sort.) The Gamemaker just assumed Players will DERP along with their bad fantasy. Hmmm, a Remote human operator ? A guy in an armored booth controlling it ... At least plausible (if not illogical), but sorry it is not to be done by any Quantumz/Vigor weirdness. Automatic turrets were just wrong for the whole era (This game needed to add a few new ideas and not to just poorly copy them). (( '' Really its just a case of slavishly cloning what was in the two previous BioShock games, instead of thinking up something new and imaginative. Its simple evidence they were CASHING IN on the previous games branding, AND in the end did a rather lame job of even that '' )) --- --- --- Construction Ferro-Concrete - Steel Reinforced Concrete : The rebar (reinforcement bar, placed within the concrete to add tensile strength) used was usually Steel, but that has long term Salt Water corrosion problems ( problematic in Rapture). Aluminium resists salt water corrosion better, but still for long term is not sufficient. Other specialized reinforcement materials (wires/fibers) are possible, but with an added expense. Basalt Fiber rebar ??? A fibery melted rock material with useful tensile properties, and is fully resistant to salt corrosion (thus allowing a long functional lifespan). It might be a possible option using local sources of volcanic rocks, combined with the Plasma heating technologies used in Rapture. Its use would likely be selected when the city was being planned. --- --- --- Construction Pre-Fab : When parts of Rapture are built, they couldn't simply just be thrown together. With the difficulties in those watery depths, construction had to be done with great deliberation/effort. Many extra limitations and preprovisions for structure interconnections and utilities and access (not just watertight, but watertight under 280lb/sq in external pressure) The MMORPG would have Rapture make use of more standard construction (form cast pre-fab sections) for the external and general internal volumes. Afterwards, the INSIDES can be more variously shaped with false walls and lesser non-structural/non-loadbearing construction (utilities, partitioning, decorations, etc ...) More customized (inward facing) facades could be used (when you cannot have the full in-the-round for Art Deco style architecture). Actually, this reflects a fundamental aspect of "Art Deco", where a rather plain/simplified/abstracted functional structure then has added decorations 'glued' onto it. Hopefully this can make up for the lack of style on most of the City's exteriors (where it is little seen anyway). --- --- --- SPECULATION IS FUN - 'First Lady' Comstock - Where Did She Fit Into The Scam ?? : She Married him as a old man (AND STERILE), and he wasn't rich was he ?? And if was before at 16-19 he's not exactly able to support her (as any decent family would require of him - and more typically the man was around 30 ). (( '' Seriously it seems the writers knew LESS AND LESS about this 'american' historic period they make believe they are portraying '' )) She was Another Con Artist (Like Comstock)?? A confidence trickster who used her fake social propriety to steal money from her victims. Someone Booker knew from is past ?? Maybe she saw alot of potential in the big Sting ripping off the investors in this Columbia Scam ?? (And Comstock convinced her to 'let it ride' for an even BIGGER payoff ???) Maybe she was also another creepy Cultist (it takes a "woman's touch" ???) Half the weird crap was HER idea ??? Murdered - ouch. She seems to have died pretty early in Columbia's history (the flawed game portrayed one -- where she could have her own REAL hydrogen filled Zeppelin or at least it being named after her according to the writers story) --- for Elizabeth to be as old as she is (17 in 1912) . Steal a child from another dimension ?!?! ... (That Alibi is fooling noone.) Yeah that truth would have been disturbing enough beyond Comstock's taking advantage of a non-white (lobotomized) ex-convict servant to produce a child (IN HER OWN HOUSE, UNDER HER NOSE!!!!). The shrieking maybe didn't start only AFTER she was dead ... Oops - "I WONT HAVE THAT BASTARD CHILD IN MY HOUSE!!!!" (How was she killed ??? And was she scalped ...) Did she also suspect that Rosalind was 'the Other Woman' too ?? SO was it then Fink later had an affair with 'Lady C' (to further his plans taking over "the Flying City"), and that is why SHE was really killed ?? Was the magic power Siphon from Elizabeth used more to keep Lady Comstock IN THE GRAVE ??? (Spectral Hauntings .. Yeah Quantumz can be like that.) All kinds of good ideas here ... Lots of details here which MIGHT have been much more interesting than yet another Arena Shootfest. --- --- --- Raptures Economy Economic Microcosm Things That Just Wouldn't Be Made in Rapture : Example : Watches. How many new watches would really be needed in Rapture's small economy ? Watches are complex devices requiring significant craftsmanship and skill (and specialized manufacturing if they aren't to be "rich men's toys" as they started out to be). One or two watchmakers might be possible, but probably most of their business would be watch Repairs (and probably for Clocks too). But manufacturing new ones ? The few watchmakers coming to Rapture might bring a stash of hundreds of standard premade mechanisms, and just finish/customize them. It would be unlikely they would FULLY handcraft very many intricate mechanisms required for those modern mechanical watches themselves, and FEW people could afford such when they did (to have a price anywhere near as cheap as the Surface World's Mass Produced watches). Once their 'stash' ran out, that would be it (parts can be custom fabricated, but again at a high price). Think of all the complex specialty devices of that 1950s time period all being a similar case. Lots of repairs, but little full manufacturing. Watches, if there WAS a demand, would have been a good smuggling contraband item. --- --- --- --- --- . . . .